Amnesty
said al-Hela suffered psychological torture at five prisons in or around
Kabul, a number of them underground, before being transferred to Guantanamo
Bay in September 2004.

Pentagon's inspector general won't probe US eavesdropping
Indianapolis
Star, United States -1-11-06Rejecting
Democratic requests, the Justice Department's independent watchdog says it
does not have jurisdiction to investigate the legality of the Bush
administration's domestic eavesdropping program.

It's surprising that Republicans are
against abortion, they kill or torture everything else.

Bush declares War on Ethics:
"We've got more than we really need." –
Grant Gerver

"As veterans and soon to be
veterans, you have placed the nation's security before your own lives. You took
an oath to defend our flag and our freedom, and you kept that oath
underseas [sic]
and under fire." (Applause.) -- George W. Bush
misspeaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Washington

Talk
about going against the grain: while all in Washington are scrambling to
distance themselves from Jack Abramoff, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher leapt to his
defense Tuesday… You may remember that Rohrabacher made headlines a few months
back when it was revealed that he had opened doors in Washington for Joseph
Medawar, a small-time Hollywood producer pitching a TV series about the
Department of Homeland Security, after Medawar had paid $23,000 to option Baja,
a 30-year old script the congressman had written.

A U.S.
campaign to remake the United Nations through an infusion of democratic values
and corporate efficiency has stalled, raising the prospect that Washington
lawmakers will exact a financial penalty on the world body to back up their
demands for change… Failure to break the stalemate would give momentum to
Republican lawmakers who want
to withhold half of the $429 million in U.S. contributions to the UN's 2006
budget.

A day
before a television ad linking Rep. Tom DeLay to disgraced former lobbyist Jack
Abramoff was set to hit the airwaves in the Houston area, lawyers for his
campaign told local stations Tuesday that the ad contained falsehoods and hinted
that it could lead to court action.

Because of the Jack
Abramoff and Duke Cunningham bribery scandals, Republicans in Congress are now
putting together what they call a sweeping lobbying reform package. It's such a
popular idea that they're charging companies a million dollars to sponsor it.—Jay
Leno

“If Pat Robertson ever
gets tired of being a televangelist, he would make a great administrator for an
HMO. ‘Broken leg? Yeah, God’s mad at you.’”—Jay Leno

College Loans Higher?- Thank
Dick Cheney

It won't take an
economics degree for college students to figure out what happened while they
were away on winter break: Student loans got more expensive.
The increased costs, scheduled to kick in July 1, are the result of a federal
budget-cutting bill approved by the Senate just before Christmas. It has
attracted limited attention from college leaders during the holidays, but
education officials said that would probably change when students return this
month.

A movie theater in Utah
abruptly cancelled a screening of the movie Brokeback Mountain. They felt it was
inappropriate for the community standards. Instead, they ran Deliverance..—Jay
Leno

"Lisa,
Congrats on your sweep! As George Bush might have said, 'Lucky me, I hit the
trifecta.' Seriously, I'm glad to be able to salute you and all the great laughs
you provide." - Daniel Kurtzman, About.com Guide to
Political Humor.

The spaceship Stardust is
pictured in this artist's rendering. A sample of comet dust, collected by the
Stardust with what looks a bit like a big tennis racket (top-left), is scheduled
to parachute down to earth next month, NASA scientists said on December 21,
2005. The spaceship is coming to the end of its seven-year, 2.9 billion mile
(4.8 billion km) round-trip mission to fly by comet Wild 2, catching dust that
could give astronomers clues about how the planets formed some 4.5 billion years
ago. Photo illustration by NASA